Tax season brings an extra burden to professional athletes like Angels right fielder Torii Hunter, who has to deal with "jock taxes" at home and many stops on the road. Click on the photo to see which states and cities collect personal income tax from the Angels in 2011.

ANAHEIM – One of the most important autograph sessions Angels right fielder Torii Hunter does every year also is the most taxing.

None of the adoring fans who line up with baseballs, trading cards and jerseys turns out to get these signatures of the four-time All-Star and nine-time Gold Glove-winning outfielder.

It’s just Hunter, a pen and a 3-inch stack of more than a dozen W-2 tax forms from nearly every state and several cities he has played in during the past season.

The Tax Man knows that Hunter, like most professional athletes, is a sitting duck, a cash cow and a golden goose.

His salary — $18.5 million in 2011 — is widely reported. His whereabouts are well-documented in baseball schedules and box scores.

“I could have been in one place for three days and that state and even some cities want their cut,” Hunter said. “We’re workers. We pay taxes like everybody else but we pay to more places.”

Check out the slide show of what states and city could collect when Hunter hits the road.

For 2011, Hunter, a Texas resident, has to file a return to California for his time here, including playing 83 home games (regular season and exhibition) in Anaheim, four road games in Los Angeles and nine in Oakland.

His team of accountants and tax advisers has prepared forms for Arizona, where he spent spring training from Feb. 19-March 26, 2011.

Then there are the state returns for his seven games in Missouri against the Kansas City Royals, three games in Illinois against the Chicago White Sox, four in Massachusetts against the Boston Red Sox, three in Minnesota against his former team, the Twins, six in New York against the Mets and Yankees, six in Maryland against the Baltimore Orioles, three in Ohio against the Cleveland Indians and four in Michigan against the Detroit Tigers.

Add to that the local returns he will need to file for Kansas City, New York, Baltimore, Cleveland and Detroit. These places tag a 1 to 3.9 percent tax on his earnings in addition to the 4.54 to 10.3 percent the states collect.

He doesn’t have to worry about nonresident state tax bills for the nine road games he played against the Texas Rangers, nine games against the Seattle Mariners, three against the Florida Marlins or seven against the Toronto Blue Jays because Texas, Washington, Florida and Ontario don’t tax personal income.

“The No. 1 reason why I moved to Texas is because it doesn’t have state income tax,” said the Arkansas-born Hunter, whose permanent residence is in Prosper, Texas. “When we play the Rangers, I actually save money.”

It has been two decades since professional athletes became the target of aggressive tax collectors who sought state income tax from selected non-residents for what has become known as the “jock tax.”

After the Chicago Bulls beat the Lakers in the 1991 NBA Finals, California’s Franchise Tax Board sent tax bills to Michael Jordan and the Bulls for the portions of their salaries they earned while playing in the Golden State.

Illinois retaliated by levying its own jock tax dubbed “Michael Jordan’s Revenge” on players visiting from states that taxed its athletes.

“Athletes have become poster boys for this terrible, unnecessary tax policy that creates such a massive administrative orgy of paperwork with so many athletes traveling to so many states and cities with different rates,” said William Ahern of the Tax Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based nonpartisan tax research group that has lobbied for the abolition of jock taxes.

Technically, all workers who perform services outside their states of residence carry non-resident tax liabilities, but athletes, with their multimillion-dollar contracts and publicized work schedules, are easy targets for enforcement.

For athletes, the monster administrative and accounting burden usually begins by calculating the number of “duty days” each player has during a given season. (A few states, including Massachusetts and Michigan, use the games-played formula to pro-rate salaries.)

Hunter, who reported to spring training on Feb. 19, 2011, and played his final game of the 2011 season on Sept. 28, had 221 duty days. Given his $18.5 million salary in 2011, he earned $83,710 per day — not counting his $90 per diem or any tickets he left for friends at the gate, which also are considered income.

For example: The Angels’ two 2011 trips to play the Royals included seven games and a travel day for a total eight duty days. His prorated income would be $669,680, which would be subject to Missouri’s 6 percent income tax and 1 percent Kansas City tax.

That’s a $40,180 windfall for Missouri and $6,697 for Kansas City — two places where Hunter doesn’t vote, school his children, check out a library book or ride the swing at a public park.

“When I get my check, I see each place that gets a chunk,” Hunter said. “I’m not complaining. I still get a good check, but it’s a lot of places taking something.”

And the takers take from Hunter and everyone on the visiting team down to traveling equipment guy, who draws in a year what Hunter makes per at-bat.

Living in Texas shelters any non-baseball-playing income from such from sources as endorsements or personal investments. That’s why Hunter and so many athletes make their domiciles in the nine U.S. states that don’t levy personal income tax. (Florida, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Alaska and Wyoming are the others.)

Jock taxes are a huge fiscal-year boon for states and some cities. California, home to five major league teams, three NFL teams, four NBA teams and three NHL teams, collected $102 million in taxes from visiting athletes in 2007, according to the most recent records.

“When you play at home or see teams come into California, they’re like, ‘Wow, California took this much?'” said Hunter. “In California, they’re serious about their taxes.”

The Golden State, like many others, knows where to find the golden goose.